Suit Seeks Release Of American

Student Has Spent Year In Saudi Detention.

July 29, 2004|By Jon Sawyer St. Louis Post-Dispatch

WASHINGTON — Federal agencies that have declined for months to discuss their role in the detention of a U.S. citizen in Saudi Arabia have a new reason for keeping mum: His family filed a lawsuit Wednesday demanding that the U.S. government order his release.

Officials at the State and Justice departments said Wednesday that they could not discuss the case because it is pending before the U.S. district court in Washington.

"We have not seen the lawsuit, but we normally do not comment on ongoing legal matters," said Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the bureau of consular affairs at the State Department.

"We haven't seen it, but we couldn't possibly respond at this time," said Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department. "Obviously, we would respond in court to a suit against the United States."

The case concerns Ahmed Abu Ali, 23, a resident of Falls Church, Va., who was arrested in June 2003 while taking a final exam at the university he attended in Medina, Saudi Arabia. He has been held in a Saudi prison since, often in solitary confinement, and has been subjected to repeated interrogation in the presence of FBI agents.

News accounts initially tied Abu Ali's arrest to May 2003 bombings in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. FBI agents later said that he had confessed to joining an al-Qaida terrorist cell, according to sealed court records cited last July in the prosecution of 11 Virginia men, not including Abu Ali, for alleged participation in terrorist training.

In the 12 months since his arrest, however, Abu Ali has not been charged with a crime. He has not had access to an attorney and has been allowed to speak with his family by telephone only for a few minutes every few weeks.

The suit was filed on Abu Ali's behalf by his parents, Omar and Faten Abu Ali. They are Jordanian by birth but have lived in the United States for 24 years; Omar Abu Ali is a U.S. citizen and his wife has permanent legal residence status. Their son was born in Houston.

The suit contends that U.S. agencies ordered Abu Ali's arrest in Saudi Arabia so that he could not assert his due-process rights in a U.S. court and so that he could be subjected to interrogation in Saudi Arabia, a country that the United States has long accused of countenancing torture in its criminal justice system.

The petition asserts that Saudi Arabia has told the family and U.S. officials that it was prepared to release Abu Ali if the United States requested. It says that Mathew Gillen, head of the State Department's bureau of consular affairs, told family members at a meeting May 14 that there was no current investigation of Abu Ali by either U.S. or Saudi agencies and that he would make the formal request for his release.

In a subsequent telephone conversation on June 21, according to the suit, Gillen informed the family that he could not make the request after all, because of an investigation that he said was taking place at the Justice Department.

State and Justice spokespersons declined on Wednesday to confirm or deny whether such discussions had occurred, and the current status of any investigations concerning Abu Ali.